Vapor electric apparatus.



PATENTED JUNE 20, 1905.

W. R. WHITNEY.

VAPOR ELECTRIC APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.19, 1903.

Witnesses:

Inventor Willis RWitney.

ilNirizn rams Patented'june 20, 1905.

PATENT EHQE.

WILLIS R. WHITNEY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GEN- ERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

VAPOR ELECTRBC APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,639, dated June 20, 1905.

Application filed ece ber To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIS R. VVHI'INEY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Boston, county of Suflolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vapor Electric Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to means for starting mercury-vapor apparatussuch, for example, as lamps or the like.

The particular type of apparatus to which my invention is more particularly adapted embodies electrodes having a filamentary conductor extending from one nearly into engagement with the other. For the purpose of starting, the free end of the filament is caused to engage the electrode or a portion thereof to which it is in proximity. To effect this result, I have found that the last-mentioned electrode, which is ordinarily fluid, may be rendered magnetic or capable of being acted upon magnetically. By the use of a magnetizing-coil the fluid may then be attracted and caused to move into engagement with the end of the filament. A contact is thus made, so as to complete an electrical circuit in the apparatus, which contact upon deenergization of the magnetic actuating device is broken. As the contact is broken an incipient arc is thus formed, which extends instantly along the filament from the fluid electrode to the cooperating electrode, and thus completes the starting of the apparatus.

The novel features which characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, will be more readily understood by reference to the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents my invention as applied to'a mercury-vapor lamp, and Fig. 2 is a detail view representing the mode of operation of the starting device.

In Fig. 1 the lamp is shown as consisting of a tubular glass envelop 1, provided at its ends with electrodes 2 and 3. The electrode 2 may be a hollow cylindrical piece of carbon supported in place by a conductor of wire 4, sealed 19, 1903. Serial No. 186.803.

through the upper end of the tube. A filament 5, of carbon, is suspended from the electrode 2 and extends centrally down the tube into proximity to the electrode 3. This filament is held centrally in the tube by means of suitable anchoring devices, such as shown at 6 and 7. The electrode 3 is not of pure mercury, which is ordinarily used in lamps of the character under consideration, but is an amalgam formed, so to speak, by impregnating the mercury with iron, so as to render the resultant compound magnetic. This iron amalgam may be formed electrolytically by making the mercury the cathode and a mass of iron the anode in the electrolytic bath. The preparation of such an amalgam is well understood by electrochemists and forms no part of my present invention. In order to startthe lamp above described, it is necessary that the fluid electrode 3 have some portion of its surface brought into contact with the lower end of the filament 5. This result is secured by placing amagnetizing-coil or solenoid 8 around that portion of the tube 1 containing the said fluid.

Inasmuch as the fluid when the lamp is not in operation is not in engagement with the filament, the coil or solenoid 8 is connected so that it may be energized by current independent of a circuit through the lamp, and to this end the solenoid 8 is represented as connected in shunt to the supply-mains 9 and 10. When current is caused to pass through the solenoid by closing a switch 11, the magnetic-fluid electrode 3 is drawn up to a greater or less extent into the solenoid 8, thereby causing engagement between the fluid and the lower end of the filament 5, as indicated in Fig. 2. The current then flows from the mains through the lamp and in doing so traverses the magnetizing-coil 12 of a cut-out having circuit-breaking contacts in series with the solenoid 8. The solenoid is thus deenergized, thereby allowing the electrode 3 to resume the position shown in Fig. 1, in doing which an arc is sprung between the lower end of the filament and the fluid electrode. As soon as this incipient arc is formed it passes or extends instantaneously along the filament to the upper I electrode 2. The operation of starting the lamp is thus completed, and the current-flow which results causes the operation of the cutout 12, as described. 5 When the lamp is in operation, the surplus mercury-vapor is condensed in the condensing-chamber 13, the walls of which constitute an enlargement of the tube near the lower end thereof. In order to confine the are in its .1 passage between the main electrodes, the main tube 1 extends nearly across the enlargement 13, as indicated at 14, and the open end of this extension is located within a relatiyely short distance of the lower walls of the enlargement 5 13, as indicated at l5.- This enlargement prevents the are between the mainelectrodes from expanding into or straying around in the enla-rgement, but at the same time permits mercury-vapor generated from the lower electrode to find its passage into the enlargement 13 and there be condensed.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is 1. The combination of an exhausted en- 5 velop, and a plurality of electrodes therein,

one of which is formed'of a fluid magnetic material.

2. In a vapor electric apparatus, an electrode formed of iron amalgam.

trode' formed of an electrically-conducting,

magnetic fluid.

4. The combination of an exhausted envelop, an electrode of fluid magnetic material, and a cooperating electrode having a filament extending therefrom into proximity to the first electrode. I

5. The combination of an exhausted envelop, an electrode of fluid magnetic material,

a cooperating electrode having a filament ex- 4 tending therefrom into proximitytothe first electrode, and a magnetizing-coil for causing the fluid electrode to move so as to make en'- gagement with said filament.

6. The combination of an exhausted envelop, an electrode of fluid magnetic material, a cooperating electrode having afilarnent extending therefrom into proximity to the fluid electrode, a magnetizing-coil for causing the fluid electrode to move so as to make engage- 5 ment with said filament, and means for automatically deenergizing said coil.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 17th day of December, 1903.

WILLIS R. WHITNEY. Witnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL, HELEN ORFORD. 

